Stockholm Syndrome
by Requiem For Absolution
Summary: After AC. Nobody knows more clearly than Denzel and Marlene that there's something wrong with Midgar. But they don't know what it is. Then they're kidnapped by three people who ought to be dead. What's the connection? And what are the Remnants planning?
1. Kidnapped

**Stockholm Syndrome**

Chapter One: Kidnapped

Marlene stared out the window at the rain.

It was three months since the destruction of the Remnants, and since everyone had been cured of Geostigma. Everything had returned to normal – or as normal as things could be, anyway.

Tifa was still running the bar. Cloud was still doing his deliveries. Rufus Shinra was still lying to the public. Denzel was still teasing her.

But there was something wrong; some undercurrent of discord, some twist of insecurity and fear that had started to infect the people. More and more people had started to stay indoors, kids had stopped playing their games, adults had been calling in sick for work…

AVALANCHE, normally, would have investigated what was going on, but it was near impossible to contact any of the members – Vincent never replied to his phone, Yuffie was busy in Wutai, Cid was working on building a new craft and Barrett's oil field had come up with some unexpected complications in the quality of the oil.

That was strange in itself.

But the more Marlene looked out the window at the rain, the more uncomfortable she felt. The few that dared to venture out of their homes were hurrying, rushing towards their destination with a masked expression on their face, as though they were hiding their emotions from anyone who, like her, watched silently from the windows without daring to go outside.

Something was incredibly out of place with Midgar, and it was beginning to unnerve her.

* * *

Denzel, like Marlene, was watching the people outside of the window. Again, like her, he was lost in thought, contemplating the change in atmosphere since he'd been cured. It was duller, lifeless.

His eyes came to rest on a dead tree in a garden far away, and he inwardly wondered how long it had been standing there for, lonely and bare. With a shrug, he glanced around, before shivering as a chill ran up his spine without reason.

What was it that was bugging him so much?

"Play with me."

Three words. A whisper on the wind. Denzel whipped his head around, searching for who had spoken.

Nobody was there. Did he imagine it? Was he being paranoid?

"Play with me."

Softly spoken, yet insistent. A quiet demand.

"Marlene?" Denzel cautiously asked, his eyes scanning his room for any sign that someone else was there. Marlene certainly wasn't. Warily, he padded out into the hallway, searching for the voice.

"Tifa? Cloud?"

There was no reply. Increasingly worried, Denzel slipped into Tifa's room. She was asleep, breathing quietly. Marlene was there, gazing out the window in the opposite direction. She heard him come in and turned around. "Denzel? What's wrong?"

"Where's Cloud?"

"He's out on a delivery." She studied his face. "You look worried."

"I … " Denzel shrugged. "I must have imagine it. Don't worry."

Marlene turned back to the window, not daring to ask Denzel if he'd felt the same disquiet she had whenever she looked outside. Across the room, he was inwardly longing to ask the same thing, but too afraid of being scorned –or worse, that he'd imagined it– to mention it. So he walked out of the room, and down the stairs into the bar.

It was quiet, untouched. Nobody was there. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the room.

Without really knowing why, Denzel took two tentative steps towards the door, and unlocked it, standing in the doorway and looking out.

A childlike figure staring out an adult world, filled with adult problems.

"Play with me."

Those three words again. Denzel wondered "Who are you?"

"I'm your friend."

"Where are you?" Denzel didn't realize he'd been speaking out loud. His voice was barely louder than the other voice which was whispering back.

"Turn around and count to ten."

"Why?"

"It's a game."

Denzel obediently turned around, after ten seconds, asked again "Where are you?"

"Right behind you."

Denzel began to spin around – he saw a black-gloved fist – he cried out – and then nothing.

* * *

Marlene heard Denzel's cry and whipped around. "Denzel!"

Tifa blinked awake. "Wha?"

Marlene had already darted outside the room, down the stairs, into the bar. The door was open, and without thinking, she rushed towards it, only wanting to know what was wrong with her friend, why he'd cried out, why –

Crack.

A picture of an all-too-familiar smile, and then blackness.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **Eek. I really shouldn't have written this, with my exams and NaNoWriMo looming closer, but this plotbunny won't leave me alone! So there you go. I hope you enjoyed this, and I will probably update after November (because I'm going to be focusing on NaNo all through November). Until then, thanks for reading, and I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a review. :-) _


	2. Remnants

**Stockholm Syndrome**

Chapter Two: The Remnants

Marlene couldn't see anything.  
That was her first thought. Her second, 'Where am I?'  
Her third was a flashing memory of the man who had hit her.

He was the man who Tifa had fought at Aerith's church. The one who had kidnapped her afterwards. She didn't know his name. Denzel –

Wait, where was Denzel?!

Marlene sat bolt upright, and then her upper body swayed and collapsed back down to the …bed? she was sitting on as her blood rushed to her head, and the pain of a massive headache made itself known to her.

"Marlene?"

"Denzel?"

She squinted into the darkness, trying to come to grips with what she knew.

She was in a room. Denzel was also in it. She was sitting on a bed, and she could hear the faint sound of rain dancing on the rooftop. There was dull light seeping through a large window behind her…

She then dimly saw the faint outline of her friend walking towards what looked like a table. A second later, a soft light was emanating from a lamp right beside her head.

Marlene's eyes widened as she glanced around the room. It was decorated to be a lavish bedroom, with cream walls and a pale gold carpet. Her child-sized bed was set against a wall, and at the end of it, there was a small dresser table with a teddy bear on it. There was an identical table beside where she was sitting now, on the head of her bed, and behind it she could she Denzel. He was sitting on a bed the same shape and size of hers, with pillows at the far end.

Two windows were in the room; one behind her, and one at the opposite end of the room. There were also two doors. One was ajar, and she could see a small bathroom. The other was closed.

"Are you okay?"

Marlene looked back at Denzel, moving the lamp to the side so she could see him better. "Yes. Are you?"

Denzel shrugged. "I was hit in the face. My cheek hurts a lot, but I'm fine."

Marlene put her hand up onto her scalp, where she could feel a lump beginning to throb. "Where are we?"

"In a forest somewhere. I'm not sure. It's pretty far away from Edge, that's all I know." He saw her confused expression and elaborated "We were kidnapped and taken away from Tifa."

Marlene sunk back onto the pillows. "…Why?"

"I don't know." Denzel laid his head on his arms, looking at the closed door.

Marlene looked at the window again. It had no bars on it, and aside from a flyscreen, there wasn't anything to prevent her from climbing out. "Is the door locked?"

Denzel shook his head.

"Then why don't we go?"

He laughed hollowly. "They don't need to lock us in. Even if we tried to escape, they'd catch us before we could."

"They?" Marlene asked, scared she already knew the answer. Denzel nodded.

"The Remnants. They're silent, fast and deadly. While they're guarding us, we'll never escape."

Marlene almost whimpered, remembering the three sleek, efficient young men. Silver-hair, mako-enhanced eyes, black leather outfits… "I thought they were dead!"

"We survived."

Marlene and Denzel whipped around. Kadaj stood in the doorway, his arms crossed, and his expression one of disinterest. The same curtain of silver hair hid half his face, the same visible eye burned with intensity, and he had the same stance. He repeated "We survived, we're alive, and we're going to kill anyone who stands in our way."

Marlene shrunk back slightly, but Denzel snapped "Cloud will find us and kill you!"

Kadaj moved so quickly Marlene didn't even see it – one second he was across the other side of the room, the next his sword was out and at Denzel's throat. His voice was shaking with anger as he said "Don't tempt me to hang up your lifeless body as a road direction. Cloud will die before he even notices you're gone."

Very deliberately, he cut Denzel lightly across the neck, so that two bright beads of blood welled up and began to trickle down his throat. Then Kadaj whirled around, slapped Denzel across the face, and stalked out, slamming the door behind him.

Marlene, trembling, slipped off her bed and knelt by Denzel's, looking at his cuts. She couldn't tell if they were serious or superficial, but she reassured him in a steady enough voice. "You'll be fine."

Denzel winced. "I hate him. He's so cruel."

"He's the leader, isn't he?"

The boy nodded once. "Kadaj. Loz is the one who hit us and brung us here. The other one, I don't know his name, is apparently out acting as a scout."

"How do you know?"

Denzel put a hand up to his throat, trying to stem the bleeding a little, before he said "If you go into the bathroom and climb up, you can get into the ceiling. There's another whole room up there, but after a while, there's no flooring, and you can go over the rafters. I went up there before you woke up, and there's a place where you can put your ear to the plaster and hear what they're saying below. I'll show you."

He jumped off the bed, and walked in. All that was in there was a single toilet. The room was narrow enough so that they had enough room to walk around, but wide enough so that standing side-by-side was extremely uncomfortable. Denzel pointed to a hole in the roof, just small enough for a child to climb through. "I made that bigger."

He put his back against the door, and his feet against the opposite wall, then used his arms to brace himself and levered himself up. When he reached roof, he put his arms into the ceiling and pulled himself up, disappearing from sight. A second later, he reappeared, holding an arm out. "Come on. It's easy."

Marlene looked nervously up at him, and then braced her back against the wall, setting her legs against the opposite wall.

"That's it!" Denzel encouraged. Marlene slowly, more fearfully, than Denzel, began to climb up. When she was close enough, he gave her a hand and guided her to the rafter he'd used to pull himself up with.

"Grab that, and you can get over here."

'Here' was a small platform of boards, set over the rafters so that it wasn't plastic. Marlene did as he instructed, swinging and then putting her feet on the wood. Denzel pulled her over. "Easy, right?"

Marlene didn't want to reply to that, so instead she shrugged and said "Not really."

The sound of rain was far louder up here, and it was harder to see – her eyes weren't adjusted to the light.

Denzel walked to the edge of the boards, then lay down on his stomach in a none-too-comfortable position, and pressed his ear to the plaster. Marlene mimicked him, and then heard two faint voices coming from below…

"How long are the kids going to be here for?"

"That's Loz!" Denzel whispered. Kadaj's voice replied "For as long as it takes."

"Why do we have to kidnap them anyway?"

"So that Cloud will actually listen to us and consider what we have to say. How many times do I have to tell you, Loz? You're thicker than an oak tree."

There was silence for a second, and then Kadaj's voice again, impatient. "Don't cry, Loz!"

"I'm NOT crying!"

"Whatever!"

The kids heard the sound of footsteps, then a closing door. Just as Marlene was about to retreat, she heard a distinctive mutter of "One day, Kadaj, you'll be the one crying."

Then there was just silence. Denzel motioned for her to move backwards, and she did. He grabbed the rafter, hung in space for a moment, and then dropped lightly onto the ground. Marlene hesitated for a moment, then with sweating hands did the same.

Denzel looked impressed. "You're good."

He turned the tap of the sink, washed his hands, face and neck with water, and then playfully splashed her with some. She gave him a wry smile, and washed her hands and face, before walking back into the bedroom and lying on her bed.

"So what was that all about?"

"That was about us finding a good hiding place in case anything happens, and we can both eavesdrop on them whenever we want. If we're careful enough, we can get anywhere in the house using the rafters. As long as we don't step on the plaster, we'll be fine."

Marlene nodded, then thoughtfully –and sadly– she said "I wish I had a phone. I wish Tifa and Cloud were here."

Settling onto his bed, Denzel said "I wish I had Sephiroth's sword, or Barrett's or Vincent's gun."

"I want Yuffie's materia and shruiken." Marlene picked up the teddy bear that had been left on the dresser. "But if Kadaj is so cruel, who left this here?"

"Probably Loz… He's like a kid himself."

"He fought Tifa. In the church. He kept saying 'play with me'."

"That's him."

"How long have you been awake for?"

Denzel shrugged. "I'd guess about four hours. The sun went down a couple of hours ago." He yawned. "I'm tired."

"Go to sleep."

"Goodnight, Marlene."

He turned off the light. A couple of minutes later, she could hear his breathing; even and steady. Another couple of minutes later, and she was asleep as well.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **I decided to update this before NaNoWriMo starts (writing this on the 31st of October) so here you go. I hope you liked it. Also, to any disbelievers of Marlene and Denzel's stunt in climbing up into the roof, it's perfectly possible for a seven year old girl wearing a dress to do that. Believe me, I used to do it back when I was seven, lol.  
_

_In any case, thank you for reading and thank you to my reviewers.  
_

_Cliff-IX: I hope you liked this chapter as well. _

_Aeriths-Rain: . ^.^ I think I'm going to need all the luck I can get, lol. _

_BMIK: I'm glad you liked it. I tried to describe the kids as well as I could, so I'm glad you picked up on it. =D _

_Also, thanks to the silent readers. I know you're there. Hope you're enjoying the story so far. =D Ciao to everyone for the next month.  
_


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